Sony explains PSN Store niggles

By Tom Bramwell Published 16 April, 2008

Due to "high global traffic levels".

Sony has said that the slow speeds of thumbnail graphic downloads on the new PlayStation Store are down to demand.

"We are aware that many of you have experienced delays whilst the PS Store's thumbnail icons are being downloaded," community team leader Lestrade wrote on the official PS3 forum.

"This is a temporary consequence of a new system implementation and high global traffic levels, and will be resolved within the next few days."

The redesigned store launched yesterday and no longer runs in the console's web browser. You will need firmware 2.30 to access it, so head off to that System Update screen and put the kettle on.

In addition to the fancy new Store, this week will also bring with it the Metal Gear Online beta, which goes live tomorrow, a new Warhawk expansion and a patch for Lair that adds analogue controls.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (50) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • moggsy #1 4 years ago

    If it's anything like the new PSP store it's because they are using large images which are then resized on the fly (by the browser) to smaller versions. You still have to download the large image though hence the slowness.

  • moggsy #2 4 years ago

    PSP Store (notice the small images)

    Image (notice it's a lot bigger than it appears on page linked to above)
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/08 @ 10:14

  • Aretak #3 4 years ago

    It has nothing to do with the size of the images. When they actually do download they pop up very quickly. It's just waiting for them to start in the first place.

  • moggsy #4 4 years ago

    @ Aretak

    That could simply be because the PS3 browser isn't displaying the image until it is fully downloaded.
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/08 @ 10:19

  • Shrui #5 4 years ago

    Either way SCEE screw up again. Who knew?

  • optimusprym8 #6 4 years ago

    oh some thumbnails take a bit of time to appear, hardly a screw up

  • Steroyd #7 4 years ago

    I call no demo section a "screw up"

    What the hell Sony?

  • Aretak #8 4 years ago

    "That could simply be because the PS3 browser isn't displaying the image until it is fully downloaded."

    No, because you can tell when it's downloading something by the flashing of the wireless activity icon on the front. It just sits there idling for ages, which is obviously due to the network congestion.

  • Widge #9 4 years ago

    no surprise really, anything network wise seems to be a bit meh when first launched. I remember Warhawk behaved like a disaster, but totally stable now.

  • Schiraman #10 4 years ago

    A big build-up followed by a broken store that lacks features that the US version has. I'd call that a screw-up too.

  • Beano #11 4 years ago

    Atleast we now know they are working on it...

    Nice to see confirmation about the MGO beta and Warhawk pack :)
    Edited by 2 at 16/04/08 @ 10:38

  • iapetus #12 4 years ago

    optimusprym8: It's not as though it's a slight delay. You can leave it sitting there for five minutes and still only have a couple of thumbnails loaded. Sony should have been ready for the traffic.

  • Russty Cage #13 4 years ago

    If they fix the slow loading and change the layout of the EU store to be the same as the US store it would be awesome.

  • GamesConnoisseur #14 4 years ago

    Well its free? To me having subscription based system would fund the costs to have a higher capacity infrastructure. Still its pretty poor to blame on the traffic as if they never expected to sell so many PS3 or too many people loggin in at same time. Its always the consumer faults innit?!

    Wake up, its poor advert for PSN 2.0 (makeover), I lost interest after few minutes and switched off PS3. Expect them to sort themselves out sometime.

    By the way what chance have we all to get Beta tomorrow with the PSN like it is?!

  • ic1male #15 4 years ago

    Why is just the European store that's affected then? "High global traffic levels" aren't affecting Japan and USA stores. Europe is screwed over again.

  • Beano #16 4 years ago

    "Why is just the European store that's affected then? "High global traffic levels" aren't affecting Japan and USA stores."

    All regions are affected.

  • Beano #17 4 years ago

    "By the way what chance have we all to get Beta tomorrow with the PSN like it is?! "

    There's nothing wrong with PSN... the problems are isolated to the Store. Downloads and PSN network performs like normal.

    I bought the SSHD upgrade and downloaded a few trailers yesterday without any problems downloading.
    Edited by 2 at 16/04/08 @ 10:54

  • moggsy #18 4 years ago

    @ Aretak

    Fair enough. It's just the PSP store that they need to fix then ;-)

  • Shrui #19 4 years ago

    @Egster
    SHut up Shrui you whiny little kid you.


    Going to have to say no on that one.
    1. I'm not a kid.
    2. I'm merely pointing out as a long time Playstation customer the shocking treatment European customers have received in the last year. The first 6 months I can forgive while they get going but not afterwards. If SCEE are not publicly held up for being the incompetent people they are then this will continue.Their American counterparts embarrass them on almost a weekly basis that at some point someone has to get a clue and make some changes.

    Ok, so I'm mentally half the age I really am and SCEE so far have not shown much sign of change despite public flogging daily on all fronts but I can always hope! ;)

  • hobo57 #20 4 years ago

    Was there any official Sony response to differences in EU and US store? e.g. no sort by alphabet, no video preview other than download and quit store to view?

  • Beano #21 4 years ago

    @Shrui : Again... the problems are not isolated to the EU Store...
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/08 @ 11:43

  • WinterSnowblind #22 4 years ago

    It is working better today. The lack of any sort of decent content for Europeans after a three week down period is a little ridiculous though..

  • Psiloc #23 4 years ago

    I find the poor layout compared to the NA store more annoying than anything. It's like they saw the NA version and thought "Hmm, you know, we can make this far more irritating." Genii.

    It does look pretty though.

  • Shrui #24 4 years ago

    @Beano

    Your right in one sense - the odd choice of not caching the files downloaded locally does affect everyone. As mentioned elsewhere the slow speed of the store isn't the only problem. Although the US store loaded much more quickly and completely for me when I looked last night.

    The other issues are the change in layout compared to the US store is baffling, the ever slow game of catchup we play in terms of content, the fact that the statement this story is based on is about the most communication we've had from SCEE on the PSN store ever and so on.

    These are continuing problems with SCEE and not having adeqaute capacity to deal with expected busy periods (or not anticipating them despite the relaunch you've been promoting for a while) is one more example.

  • Arwin #25 4 years ago

    Well, i still think that it would have been better if they'd simply cached the bloody images locally. It's not rocket science!

  • Beano #26 4 years ago

    "Although the US store loaded much more quickly and completely for me when I looked last night."

    I tried the US Store yesterday and it performed just as poor as the EU Store.. strange if you have different experience.

    I'm not trying to defend Sony or the EU Store... but I can't see EU Store is much worse than the US Store... yes the US Store is a bit better but not much.
    The problem in my opinion, is the lack of content and delays of DLC and PSN games... but I never expected a new Store client would solve this.
    Edited by 1 at 16/04/08 @ 12:10

  • TONYgr #27 4 years ago

    no demo page!idiots!what were they thinking?

  • septimus #28 4 years ago

    I only had image problems, downloaded about 300+MB from PSN last night and it came down at close to my connection speed.

  • KreyAtiv #29 4 years ago

    You really don't need to wait for the images to load up, you can still get the information on what's there by moving the cursor from box to box. Still faster than the old PSN Store otherwise.

  • Les #30 4 years ago

    “Still its pretty poor to blame on the traffic as if they never expected to sell so many PS3 or too many people loggin in at same time. Its always the consumer faults innit?!”

    They’re a business so they have to balance cost and benefits. They launch a new store client so traffic will initially explode but it will return to normal levels in the short term. They could have doubled (or tripled, etc.) the server capacity to ensure smooth operation immediately after launch but then they would have costly excess capacity soon after. I’m not in the IT business so I don’t know whether it would have been possible to rent some extra capacity just for the first week or so. That could have been a solution to keep everyone happy.

    On a side note, is the add-on for Super Stardust HD recommended?

  • Coughthulu #31 4 years ago

    What's the deal with not being able to download some of the PSP demos? There claims to be a Wipeout Pulse demo on the store, but when you go to download it tells you it's not availble for download.

    Are the assets shared between all the stores? It's a bit confusing...

  • Beano #32 4 years ago

    "On a side note, is the add-on for Super Stardust HD recommended? "

    Absolutely :)

  • 3william56 #33 4 years ago

    Les - oh sweet jesus yes. But get in the eccys or red bull. It's fookin' nails.

    "Should have been prepared" - don't be daft. The level of demand on the PS Store on a day when a new version comes out is obviously going to be hugely higher than the normal demand level - every online PS3 on the planet will be downloading the update and trying to download those graphics in the first 24hrs. If they sized the servers for yesterday's demand, they'd have 90% empty capacity the rest of the year. Patience is a virtue, ya know.

    Did you consider in the frothing and hate, that the lack of demo vid may also be to ease peak demand on the EU servers? If they roll it out progressively in a week or so, won't have the same problem.

  • hobo57 #34 4 years ago


    Petition here to get SCEE to fix EU PSN Store if anyone is interested:

    http://co mmunity.eu.playstation.com/play...

  • el_pollo_diablo #35 4 years ago

    The thing is, nothing appears to cache. Which is dumb. Plus the category thumbnails could actually be, you know, in the update and on my machine. Which they appear not to be.

    Still, it's an improvement.

  • TonCapone #36 4 years ago

    So, high global traffic causes the store to produce ridiculous catagories to file stuff in ....... interesting.

  • Darren #37 4 years ago

    There's three major things wrong with the PS Store IMO and they are:

    1. It doesn't appear to use any "placeholder" icons so the Store's categories can look as if there's nothing in them! It would have been better had a standard icon appeared immediately so you at least could see what was available without having to wait for these thumbnails to download. Why doesn't the store already have thumbnails for the game categories for example, why does it have to download them?

    2. Sony have thoughtfully added a red shopping bag symbol to the thumbnails so you can tell whether you've downloaded content before or not... only thing is, these aren't visible until the thumbnail has downloaded!!! I waited 15 minutes on one section for the thumbnails to appear and ended up giving up as they didn't... appear that is. Thus this feature needs to be visible starightaway regardless of whether the proper thumbnails download or not. The system Sony have in place means that as soon as there's a surge in demand for the Store, say when a firmware update or popular demo is out, PSN will again go back to being slow.

    3. As others have mentioned, the Store doesn't cache thumbnails properly anyway, instead it keeps them only for the current session. As soon as you exit the Store they are deleted so even if you re-enter it immediately you'll find the thumbnails have to tediously download all over again. Couldn't the PS3 reserve some of its HDD system cache for the Store thumbnails and delete older ones when required?

  • Les #38 4 years ago

    @ Beano & 3william56

    Thanks! Will probably pick it up soon! The new modes sounded interesting, wondered how they actually play. :)

  • Beano #39 4 years ago

    "Sony have thoughtfully added a red shopping bag symbol to the thumbnails so you can tell whether you've downloaded content before or not... only thing is, these aren't visible until the thumbnail has downloaded!!!"

    Not quite true - I observed empty slots with the "red basket" symbol yesterday.

  • Shrui #40 4 years ago

    @Egster

    I think your missing whats annoying us. As in my earlier reply to your insights on the issue, the problem is not just the relaunch on its own. One blip I think most people would forgive (except for the select few who really do drink too much coffee before school!).

    The problem is its yet ANOTHER muppet fest/cock up/fingers up to the user base by SCEE - and while other regions may be suffering on this SCEE have made sure not to be outdone and gone that little bit farther.

    I think its worth saying the new store front is a step in the right direction in terms of losing the web based store, I can see the potential for it being very cool. Its just they've tripped in the process in a way that is only way too familiar to EU customers.

    And slightly echoing someone else, this is all well and good but does it make the content arrive any faster? (i.e. not 3 months after the US)

  • dreamkin #41 4 years ago

    No really.

    Whoever is running Sony's Europe business must be fired RIGHT NOW. This is ridiculous. Especially considering we have paid much more than anyone else in the world for their products.

  • Darren #42 4 years ago

    @Beano - Well whatever is happening with those red shopping bag symbols, they take far, far too long to appear (and in many cases don't appear at all nor do the thumbnails) which defeats their purpose really. Unlike the Xbox 360's Marketplace the icon is the only way of knowing what stuff you've downloaded without going to the Download list at the top of the screen.

  • iapetus #43 4 years ago

    Les: "On a side note, is the add-on for Super Stardust HD recommended?"

    No. It's mandatory. :p

  • hobo57 #44 4 years ago

    mind boggles how SCEE could screw things up so right royally... someone must be on the same amount of smack as Pete Doherty.

  • ChaK #45 4 years ago

    @Widge

    Oh my, warhawk debuts *cry out loud*

    it'll be fixed, I'm quite confident (notice the 'quite')

  • Scimarad #46 4 years ago

    After being rather annoyed by this I was quite amused to see the same thing happening on Live Marketplace - of course on Live you have a helpful piece of text next to the where the pic should be...

  • locus2k1 #47 4 years ago

    going to be fun trying to download MGO tonight if its still like this :(

  • ChaK #48 4 years ago

    After testing US PSN yesterday, it was all the same for picture.

    A little bit faster but not much.

  • Les #49 4 years ago

    This morning it was almost snappy. All icons loaded within 15-20 seconds (estimate, didn't hold a timer ;) ).

  • Darren #50 4 years ago

    Yeah, I tried both the US and EU PS Stores at 7:30am and it worked perfectly with icons loading within 1-2 seconds of each other. However, I suspect that is because no-one else was on the PSN so it remains to be seen whether it goes back to loading at a crawl later today when the Metal Gear Online beta is posted on the Store... ;/